India is the world’s second largest cement manufacturer after China with a production capacity of about 230 million tonnes. Over the last 25 years, it has maintained a production growth of over 8% and has also kept itselfequipped with the latest technology to meet world standards in terms of cost, quality and technology. The Indiancement industry manufactures a wide verity of cements like ordinary Portland cement, Portland pozzolana cement,Portland blast furnace slag cement, oil well cement, rapid hardening Portland cement etc.

Today cement industry has become a significant contributor to the Indian economy in terms of employment andtax revenues. According to Government estimates Indian cement industry provides direct employment to around70,000 people and creates indirect employment opportunity in sectors like process machinery manufacture, rawmaterials sourcing, etc. The employment generation in Indian cement industry can easily be estimated throughthe industry thumb rule ‘one million tonne of cement production provides employment to around 50,000 persons downstream’. Indian cement industry also contributes around 5% of the total excise collection and adds significantlyto the exchequer through royalty and cess on limestone, and levies on coal.